[T3] Bosch Ignition Condensors!?!

[Jim Adney]

Last week someone brought me a Type 4 distributor to rebuild. With 
it, he brought a brand new condensor to go with it. This was bought 
from Automobile Atlanta and came in a properly labeled yellow Bosch 
box. It was the same part that '72-3 Type 3 distributors use, with 
the long Bosch number ending in 220. You know the one.  

But inside that Bosch box was a Japanese looking condensor with gold 
colored plating. I don't recall whether the country of origin was 
marked anywhere. It looked reasonable, however, and, frankly, I've 
never seen a bad condensor, so I don't tend to think of this as one 
of those parts to be picky about.  

The surprise came when I tried to mount it on the distributor. This 
condensor is intended to mount some distance to the left from where 
the connection to the points enters the distributor body. But the 
wire on this condensor wasn't long enough to reach. It was about 1/2 
to 3/4" too short. No way was it going to work.

The owner told me that this was a well known problem among 914/4 
owners, who use the same engine and the same condensor. It's hard for 
me to believe that Bosch is selling these made somewhere else and 
selling them even thou they don't fit. They MUST be aware of the 
problem, but apparently there isn't enough demand for them to 
actually care.

The short lesson here is that you should NEVER simply replace your 
Bosch condensor just because it's old. ALL my Type 3s have old Bosch 
condensors and I've never had one fail on me. Remember, Russ told us 
that back in the 60s Bosch offered a bounty for any defective Bosch 
condensor a mechanic could give them. To the best of his knowledge, 
no one was ever able to claim that bounty. Hang onto those genuine 
German parts, as they may become irreplacable.  

The other thing I note is that my stash of old genuine Bosch 
condensors just became more valuable.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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